So what's going to happen to health care now?

Nurses General Nursing

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So, for better or worse, we have a new President. What do you think will be the future of health care and the future of nursing as a profession? Will we be better off as nurses or worse? Will we be better off as patients or worse?

Not looking for a political argument....god knows we've had enough of those in the past few days. Emotions are running high and we all have opinions. I'm just curious as to what we can expect.

Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
I may be affected in two ways. Firstly, I am a case manager in the Medicaid MCO division of a major health insurance company. My job exists due to Medicaid expansions that occurred a couple of years ago. If Medicaid is targeted for budgetary cuts, my job could be in limbo.

Secondly, I was uninsured from 2010 to late 2013. Due to the ACA, I was able to obtain insurance in December 2013 spite of my pre-existing health conditions. Depending on what happens, I may rejoin the ranks of the uninsured in a few years. At this point we can only speculate.

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My state did not expand Medicaid and I see many who could benefit it but are excluded due to nominally being "overpaid" to qualify. (Literally a difference of less than 50 dollars for the year).

I'm keen to see what this aspect will morph into. Hopefully for the better. My expectations will likely not be met, but a move the right direction would be nice.

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Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.

It's also difficult to align my fiscal conservativeness with my social moderateness. I'm an odd duck, I guess. I want everyone to have equitable health care access, but I don't think I should pay for ALL of it.

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Specializes in Urgent Care, Oncology.
It's also difficult to align my fiscal conservativeness with my social moderateness. I'm an odd duck, I guess. I want everyone to have equitable health care access, but I don't think I should pay for ALL of it.

You are not a lone duck. I know many people (such as myself) who are fiscally Conservative but socially liberal. However, I believe it depends which side you lean on a bit more. Being socially liberal is more important to me so I side with Democrats. Love who you want, women should be able to make their own choice, give everyone affordable healthcare, and let's let some refugees in. It's tough, because I do not support the minimum wage hike that most Dems do and I believe we should have the right to bear arms. I'm not looking to get into any arguments here - I'm just trying to point out that there is a lot of gray area in the political spectrum - it is NOT a two sizes fit most category!

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Specializes in Hospital medicine; NP precepting; staff education.
You are not a lone duck. I know many people (such as myself) who are fiscally Conservative but socially liberal. However, I believe it depends which side you lean on a bit more. Being socially liberal is more important to me so I side with Democrats. Love who you want, women should be able to make their own choice, give everyone affordable healthcare, and let's let some refugees in. It's tough, because I do not support the minimum wage hike that most Dems do and I believe we should have the right to bear arms. I'm not looking to get into any arguments here - I'm just trying to point out that there is a lot of gray area in the political spectrum - it is NOT a two sizes fit most category!

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Very true and good point. I have more to say similar to that but I'm running out of steam. Suffice it to say, you and I are at least two ducks in that pond.

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I am conservative leaning, but after getting to research healthcare system around the world, I realized that systems like the NHS are really the way we need to go.

Also, maybe we'll get lucky and Press-Gainey will no longer decide reimbursement!

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I work in ER and see all these patients with Medicaid from ACA. I don't think they are going to stop coming in using the ER like a walk-in clinic because their ACA goes away. Which makes me frightened about the financial future of the department. We have to treat them, won't get paid. What's different from before ACA? Treatment costs are even higher than before and we will run deeper in the red.

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To the above..make that three ducks.....Also conservative fiscally, own a gun, but socially very liberal. And thus I vote Democrat. you guys aren't alone!

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Specializes in Ambulatory (Urgent care) & Home Health.

I also work for an ins company (Molina). I'm worried about my job. Do I go now or wait and see?....The CEO sent an email out that said everything will be ok but you can't trust that :(

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Specializes in Ambulatory (Urgent care) & Home Health.
I may be affected in two ways. Firstly, I am a case manager in the Medicaid MCO division of a major health insurance company. My job exists due to Medicaid expansions that occurred a couple of years ago. If Medicaid is targeted for budgetary cuts, my job could be in limbo.

Secondly, I was uninsured from 2010 to late 2013. Due to the ACA, I was able to obtain insurance in December 2013 spite of my pre-existing health conditions. Depending on what happens, I may rejoin the ranks of the uninsured in a few years. At this point we can only speculate.

Are you looking for other work? I work for Molina (major ins company), I don't know what to do. I'm so worried about being laid off with a new mortgage.

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Specializes in Home health, Addictions, Detox, Psych and clinics..
To the above..make that three ducks.....Also conservative fiscally, own a gun, but socially very liberal. And thus I vote Democrat. you guys aren't alone!

Make that four ducks in that pond! I'm socially liberal, a gay male nurse, firearm wielding but fiscally conservative.

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Specializes in geriatrics.

I'm very worried for everyone. I only hope Trump has good sensible advisors, and that he listens to them.

Time will tell, but I see him ensuring that the corporate ideologies dominate health care. He's a businessman.

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What people don't understand about the whole heathcare debate is that insurance is not healthcare. The reason it is expensive is because there is a limit of qualified people and resources. If you increase the number of medical staff the price will go down (and so would our wages, along with doctors and CNAs etc). The other way you can control cost is by capping the wages medical people make. Don't bite my head off, I am just the messenger; but the median pay for a nurse in this country is 68,000 a year. The median HOUSEHOLD income is 51k a year. So one nurse makes about 17k more a year than an entire house. If you look at specialist nurses and Doctors, the gap becomes much larger.

I am in no way saying that there is something wrong with how much we (or doctors) make. Getting the education and doing the job warrants it and than some IMO. What I am saying is the price of healthcare is such that you can't control how much equipment costs (costs do go down, but once they do someone makes a better version of it and it is replaced). How much supplies cost pretty much goes the same way. When they are looking to save money, they are looking at us. And don't think for a second that someone who makes 18k a year is going to think you deserve to make three and a half times as much they do, and when it comes to a vote you know how they will go.

I don't have a solution. Health care is expensive, and that is just the way it has always been. Nobody here wants less quality when it comes to this kind of thing. It's not like a car where you can opt out of leather to save a few bucks. When it comes to healthcare everyone wants a corvette and there just are not that many corvettes to go around.

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